Assessment of Cardiac Wall Motion with the Ejection Fraction Image: A Comparison with Contrast Left Ventriculography

Abstract

Twenty patients with ischemic heart disease were studied with biplane contrast left ventriculography and gated blood pool scans. An ejection fraction (EF) image was calculated from each gated blood pool scan. The EF image and contrast ventriculograms were divided into 3 regions and 7 segments, respectively. The sites of asynergy observed in each study were compared. Segments 2,3, and 6 of the contrast ventriculogram corresponded to the anteroseptal and inferoapical regions of the EF image, but it was difficult to differentiate between these segments on the EF image. Segments 3 and 4 corresponded to the inferoapical region and segments 5 and 7 corresponded to the posterolateral region. Diffuse asynergy with a low EF (< 30%) causes a large defect on the EF image. The mean regional EF obtained from the EF image correlated well with the EF calculated from the left ventricular volume curve (n [number] = 50, r = 0.94).